The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69590   Message #1181560
Posted By: Joe Offer
09-May-04 - 12:52 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: roving ploughboy
Subject: ADD: The Roving Ploughboy-O
Letty, where's your version from? Here's another version:

The Roving Ploughboy-O

Come saddle tae me my auld grey mare
Come saddle tae me my pony-O
And I will tak' the road and I'll go far away
After the roving ploughboy-O
Ploughboy-O
Ploughboy-O
I'll follow the roving ploughboy-O


Last night I lay on a fine feather bed
Sheets and blankets sae cosy-O
This night I maun lie in a cold barn shed
Wrapped in the arms o' my ploughboy-O

A champion ploughman, my Geordie-O
Cups and medals and prizes-O
On bonny Devronside there are none to compare
With my jolly roving ploughboy-O

Sae fare ye well to old Huntley toon
Fare thee well, Drumdelgie-O
For noo I'm on the road and I'm goin' far awa'
After the roving ploughboy-O


recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1953, from the singing of John MacDonald, Elgin, Moray Scotland.

source: Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland, Kennedy.

Click to play


Notes from Kennedy:
This song is a reworking by the singer of a traditional fragment. Because it has similar verses and tune one would conclude that it is a bothy parody of the ballad "The Gipsy Laddie" mentioned by Ord in Bothy Songs and Ballads (p. 42). In fact it uses a similar tune to that sung by Jeannie Robertson for The Gipsy Laddie.
Variants of the same tune are also used for two other popular Occupational Songs: The Brewer Lad and The Collier Laddie (the latter touched up by Robert Burns). In a note to the The Collier Laddie Ord remarks that in the north eastern counties of Scotland (Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Morayshire) 'Ploughman Laddie' is substituted for 'Collier Laddie'. He gives the opening verse:

The Collier Laddie too would seem to be parodied on The Gipsy Laddie.

Another song with a similar tune is Mormond Braes, but it could also be a fragment of the same song:

This in turn could also be part of The Brewer Lad which has similar verses: